Champions League 'shock' defeats for the big boys was excellent news for football.

At least, for all those who support medium-sized clubs looking to break the domestic silverware strangleholds imposed by the cash rich juggernauts of the G-14.

Favourites Arsenal, Real and Milan all went crashing out, sending bookies, advertisers and the suits at UEFA scrambling for cover.

Yeeees!

Porto, Monaco, Deportivo la Coruna and our friends from Stamford Bridge are all through to the semis.

And the engravers could be working on a new name as all bar Porto - winners over Bayern Munich in 1987 - have never been this far before.

No doubt the Euro big-wigs are already at work on a complicated new format that prevents any such thing ever happening again. Next goal the winner or something.

The business brains believe that it is good for their product to have the star-studded big box office brands in the final.

The glamour clubs put bums on seats and bump up the price of the advertising slots.

But, while it boosts the bottom line, having the usual suspects winning every year is not good for the game, no matter what the star-struck commentators and sycophantic pundits say.

Because the last thing the already financially distorted national leagues want is one of the bloated giants being given another #20m in prize money.

For years the TV talking heads have been trying to spin us the line that Man United's annual progress to the Champions League semi-final was a major boost for English football.

But that is not true.

It may boost the dividend of the Old Trafford shareholders and improve the mystical mathematical measure that is England's UEFA co-effiecient.

But it has no impact on Darlington or Hartlepool, other than the negative one of denting their crowd figures for midweek matches that clash with televised European games.

And it certainly does not have a positive effect on Boro or similar middling teams battling hard to hang onto expensively-tailored coat tails.

The Champions League windfall at the top just increases the vast financial imbalance.

As the Euro elite pour their winnings and TV cash into new talent, the chasing pack find it ever more difficult to compete on the field and in the transfer market.

On balance, the Champions League has been a disaster for the domestic game across Europe, enriching the already established elite and reducing once competitive leagues to farcical two or three-horse races and leaving the rest to scramble for the consolation of a UEFA Cup place.

But that doesn't mean we can't take some solace from events in the competition.

And not just from the gloating at the misery of crestfallen Arsene and the imminent arrival of Carlos Quirogo's P45.

It is refreshing and inspirational for instance to see the continued rise of Spanish provincial minnows Deportivo.

Boro fans enthused by the Gibson project to put their team at the top table and make them a power in Europe can take heart from Deportivo's incredible decade.

They - like Bayer Leverkusen in Germany and Chievo in Italy - show it is possible to break the mould.

In fact, Boro's ambitious bid for status quo-smashing glory mirrors that of Deportivo.

Coruna is an isolated and much-maligned backwater of Spain, tucked away in the North-west province of Galicia just above Portugal.

It is not the sunny Spain of the Costas. It is wet and miserable and industrial and is ridiculed in the press whenever foreign imports sign for an unfashionable club in a far-flung town of 250,000 built around shipyards, steel and oil refineries... stop me if you've heard this one before.

Until 1995 Spain's answer to Boro had won nowt.

They had a strong local pride and identity and a tradition of fierce parochial support but had nothing to show for it.

They had come third in the league once back in the dim mist of history. Probably the year war broke out.

But in the early 1990s a new chairman brought investment and hope to the club.

They broke the bank to bring in Brazilian World Cup stars - first Bebeto and then Romario - to fire the imagination and bring in the crowds.

That inspired them to their first ever cup in 1995.

Since then they have gone from strength to strength, bringing in shrewd tactician Javier Irureta to develop a good youth policy and blend the local talent with star names.

They finished third twice and second before stunning the Madrid-Barcelona axis and winning La Liga in 2000.

With a limited catchment area and a relatively small stadium - the Riazor holds a Riverside-like 35,800 compared to capacities of 100,000 at the Nou Camp and 80,000 at the Bernabeu - somehow they have managed to flourish and compete.

They bring in bright young players then move them on for a big profit.

They sold one-time Boro target Roy Makaay on to Bayern for #16m to fund a rebuilding project that included signing quality like Valeron, Pauleta, Mauro Silva and Diego Tristan.

That Spain's spirited provincial minnows are on the verge of the Champions League final less than ten years after breaking from a history of obscurity is inspirational.

We should cheer them all the way to victory.

And if they meet Chelsea in the final, don't swallow the lie that a win for the Blues is good for Boro.